Mousehunt
by C A Moore
Summary: After graduation team RWBY has just moved into a new house. Unfortunately there are others still in residence, dozens of the little buggers. Blake's instincts are giving her trouble. "After That Day" AU, Whiterose implied, cute Bumbleby then slightly angsty Bumbleby.


Just after graduation, so after "Winter Sister" and the end of "Cupid's Bow", before "Grandmother Schnee", and still years before "That Day".  
Usual ATD note: The main ATD story is still under development. I'm publishing the ATD spinoff snippets as separate stories since they will be out of sequence (see my profile for order) and vary considerably in style and content, so best to author follow (or series on AO3) rather than story if you want to track updates.

* * *

Picking her way though the partly unpacked boxes Yang entered the living room. Seeing Blake sprawled face down on the sofa asleep she smiled, and crept over to plant a kiss on the top of her head.  
"Missed you. Hope the chase was worth it" A small twitch of velvety ears told her that the faunus was close to waking.

By the time Blake entered the kitchen the coffee was almost finished brewing. Catching sight of Yang leaning on the counter the dark haired girl broke out in a sleepy smile and sauntered up to her wife.  
"I caught one!" She proudly laid a dead mouse down on the benchtop in front of the blonde.

Yang glanced uncertainly between her partner and the dead rodent, uncertain if she was meant to bin it or broil it.  
"Err.."

Shaking off the last cobwebs of sleep the faunus blushed furiously and quickly swept the animal into the bin, putting her other hand to her face.  
"I can't believe I just did that"

Yang pulled her partner into a hug  
"You just caught me off guard. Am I allowed to think it was sweet that you wanted to show me?"

Blake murmured something inaudible and hid her face against her partner's neck.

Yang stroked the silky black hair.  
"Catching one was pretty impressive. If I had done it I would want to show you"

The faunus made a disbelieving grunt, but soon emerged.  
"I was kind of out of it. Didn't sleep much"

The blonde smiled.  
"At least you were doing something. I don't think any of us slept much thanks to all the-"

"Gnawing, scurrying, filthy little..." Weiss paused in her diatribe, her eyes locking on the coffee pot "I just spent half an hour looking for that"

Yang smiled nervously, a crabby heiress was not to be trifled with.  
"It ended up in our room"

"Oh" by the time she answered Weiss was already half way across the room. In moments she had selected and filled a mug, then, watched cautiously by her team mates, she walked to the table and sat down.

Yang opened her mouth to speak, but their attention was distracted by a protracted bout of squeaking and scrabbling from the wall.

With a sharp gesture of her hand Weiss launched a glowing bust of energy that disappeared into the wall, silencing the noise. A few seconds later a small puff of smoke curled out from a crack in the skirting board.

Oblivious to the incredulous looks from her audience the heiress took a long menacing slip of her coffee.  
"Males", she explained disdainfully.

After a glance at Blake, Yang decided to risk conversation.  
"Always fighting. Won't the bodies, uh, smell?"

After another sip Weiss answered more evenly.  
"Ashes"

"Ok, good. Neat trick."

As the mug emptied, Weiss's mood seemed to brighten, so after a minute Blake risked conversation.  
"So, how is Ruby?"

"She went to the hardware store for supplies"

Yang smiled.  
"Great. I remember in Patch we blocked all the holes so they couldn't get in. Wire mesh and steel wool, right?"

"Yes. And poison" Weiss drew out the last word, savouring it, finishing with a nasty smile. After closing her eyes for a moment she stood up and grabbed her cup, explaining as she left the room "She's almost here."

After Weiss left to meet Ruby, Blake turned to Yang  
"Remind me never to get on her bad side"

"I just worked out what to do!" Yang bent over and started rummaging though the packing materials in the trash bin.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Yang straightened, triumphantly holding up the dead mouse  
"I'm going to get it stuffed and mounted!" Oblivious to the sour look her wife was giving her the blonde ran off carrying her prize.

* * *

Blake entered the room to find their bed strewn with ripped packaging; Yang unwrapping technique hadn't changed since she was five years old. Sometimes Ruby reminded her of Yang, sometimes it was the other way around.

Yang turned to her with a radiant smile.  
"It just arrived!"

The dark haired girl found herself responding with a smile of her own until she caught sight of the delivery.  
"What is that?" she asked sharply.

"It's your mouse. They did a really good job"

Technically she was right. The animal was mounted in a remarkably lifelike pose inside small glass case.  
"I can't believe you actually did that. It isn't funny, **AT ALL**!" she turned on her heel and strode of of the room.

Deflated, Yang sank down on the bed with a sigh.  
"It wasn't meant to be funny"

After wallowing for a few minutes Yang rose to stand in front of the mirror.  
"You gave it to me." No that wouldn't do, it sounded defensive...

"It means you like me" she frowned for a moment, "I mean, that the other part of you likes me too. The animal part." Too honest, no way to tell how she would react.

"It is just a memento of our first day living here" Pretty thin.

Her shoulders slumped. She opened the wardrobe and dug out a shoe box from the back. Opening it revealed a collection of seemingly random objects. The top layer contained black ribbon, a paper napkin, a laminated leaf, a splinter of wood, a blonde cat-ear headband. She carefully placed the mouse among these treasures before settling the box back in its hiding place.

Standing up straight she tried one final approach with the mirror.  
"I'm sorry, it wasn't funny. Will you forgive me?" Presented with a tuna steak that would probably do the trick.

* * *

A/N: Sorry. Rather like canon I think even married B/Y have a lot of issues to work though... at the risk of spoiling future developments: Yang needs to stop avoiding confrontation, and Blake needs to stop under-estimating Yang's feelings (and curb her self-destructive impulses to storm off and _stray_ ). At least thanks to my out of order publication you know that by "Wet" they have worked things out enough to have playful "fights".


End file.
